Australia Muslim party launched

SYDNEY– Australia’s first party representing Muslims intends to contest senate seats at the next federal election.

Launching the party in Sydney, founder Diaa Mohamed told Fairfax he wanted a louder voice for Muslims.

“There are a lot of parties out there to specifically oppose Islam and Muslims, yet Muslims don’t have any official representation,” he said.

Australia has a number of anti-Islam parties, including one backed by Dutch MP Geert Wilders.

Mohamed, a 34-year-old businessman, defended launching the party immediately after terror attacks in Paris this week.

“There are going to be a lot of questions raised in the coming days of the events recently, and this is the whole reason we created this party,” he told the ABC. “So it is as good a time as any to launch it.”

Mohamed condemned the attacks in Paris and said Islam strictly forbade the killing of innocent people. - ABC